


Can't Let Go

by autumnstar



Category: Lucifer (TV)
Genre: Drunk Chloe, F/M, Lucifer projects
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-21
Updated: 2017-09-21
Packaged: 2019-01-03 21:22:19
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,820
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12155064
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/autumnstar/pseuds/autumnstar
Summary: Chloe and Lucifer are trying to ignore their feelings. It works about as well as you’d expect. (Post 2x15)





	Can't Let Go

“Hello?” Lucifer called as he threw the door wide open. “Any bad guys home?”

“ _Lucifer_ ,” Chloe hissed, but it was too late. Her partner had already strolled into the house, with all the confidence of a man who’d been invited in, and disappeared into another room. She’d turned her back for just a second, after testing the door and finding it was locked, only to hear Lucifer open it a moment later.

Following him, Chloe drew her gun and began to search the home. It was quiet, which made it difficult to ignore the sound of her partner obviously going through the suspect’s things, but that didn’t mean they were alone. They needed to be careful, and Lucifer needed to learn correct police procedure. Like how, if a door was locked, that wasn’t an invitation to use his weird Houdini trick to get them inside. What if the bad guys  _were_ home and they caught Lucifer going through their things? Their latest suspect, Joe Sanchez, was only a low level drug dealer, but that didn’t mean he wouldn’t be dangerous.

“What’re you doing?” She asked as she slipped her gun back into its holster and joined Lucifer in the sitting room. He could be so reckless sometimes, it was like working with a child, so it really wasn’t that surprising to her that she found him staring down at a mess of children’s toys strewn across the floor.

“I’ll never understand how these things are supposed to be fun,” he commented lightly, skirting around a stuffed hippo. “Small humans seem so easily amused.” Chloe snorted as she looked around the rest of the room. Everything was quiet, everywhere was a mess, and she was certain now that they were alone. Sanchez and his family must have been out, and thinking of that made Chloe even more certain that they needed to leave. Having to potentially arrest someone with small children was always tough, and she was actually grateful Lucifer was there with her. At least he could make her smile.

“I bet you were a weird kid," Chloe teased as she walked up to him, and despite her unease at being in there, Lucifer did make her smile again when he looked at her. He looked so indignant, as if she’d said something especially awful, and hadn’t just called him weird.

"I was a little angel, detective,” He corrected. “I think my brothers and sisters were quite jealous of me."

"Mhm, I bet." She had no idea whether or not he was being serious, but since he’d brought up the topic of his family, something he rarely did, she wasn’t going to let it drop. "So,” Chloe continued, carefully. “What, were you your mom's favourite or something?" She wouldn't mention his dad. She could clearly remember the look on his face when she’d tried to touch the scars on his back, and she never wanted to see that look on him again. "Why would they be jealous?"

Lucifer, who had wandered off again by that point to rummage through the drawers of a side table, turned to look at her curiously. He stared at her for a moment, and Chloe stared back, waiting and hoping that he’d offer a little bit more about himself. Did he think she was joking? Whatever he’d been looking for on her face, Lucifer smiled suddenly and swept his hands down in front of his chest.

"Because I was created perfect, of course." _Of course_ , Chloe thought. What kind of an answer had she really been expecting? She shouldn’t have been so surprised, or disappointed, that he wasn’t going to tell her any more about his siblings.

"Right. For a second there I forgot who I was talking to." That took the smile from his face and replaced it with another adorably curious frown. Chloe turned away quickly, making a show of exploring their suspect’s sitting room again. She wasn’t going to think about that adorable face now, or ever. Lucifer had made it perfectly clear that they were friends. ‘ _Just friends_ ’.

"I never lie, detective.” His deep, suddenly serious voice broke her from her thoughts, and Chloe turned back to him to see that he’d stepped closer to her. “I was the favourite, for a time, before, well..." He waved his hand as if he couldn’t think of another word for it, "Before it all went to Hell."

Chloe watched him closely, even as he smiled at her again and went back to looking through their suspect's things. She’d been caught off guard. Not by his words - she should have expected some reference to Hell by now - but by his eyes. There’d been a sadness in those dark eyes of his, and Chloe found that she couldn’t move as she watched him walk away. She couldn’t believe the whole Devil thing he had going on, but there was always such genuine emotion in his voice when he spoke about his past. She knew ‘the Devil’ well enough to trust him, even now. _Something_ of what he shared with her had to be true. She reminded herself that Lucifer didn’t always share the whole truth, and she was sure that’s what he’d just done. He offered her something, just a taste of his past, without really giving anything away.

"There's nothing here," she decided suddenly. They shouldn't have been in there anyway, not without a warrant. Chloe should have insisted that they leave the moment Lucifer magically opened the locked front door. "We'll come back later, _with_ a warrant."

"But, detective," he complained as Chloe took his arm and gently tugged him out of the house. He let her guide him without further protest, but she couldn’t shake the feeling that he seemed to look stunned by her taking hold of him.

She was starting to feel terrible for mentioning him as a kid, for bringing up his obviously traumatic family life, and for pushing him to tell her more. If it was hell, whether literally or metaphorically, Chloe should have known not to push him too much. She had no way of really knowing what had happened to him as a child, but it had been enough to leave lasting effects into his adult life, and that was all she needed to know.

"Let's do something later," she said impulsively as she unlocked her car, and barely had a moment to cringe at her own phrasing before she heard Lucifer’s excited response.

"Ooh! Well, you know I'm always game to--"

"Not that," she interrupted, and found that she couldn’t have ducked down into her car fast enough. She sat, slammed her door shut, and hoped to collect herself before he saw her blush. "I meant," Chloe tried again, slowly, as Lucifer joined her in the car with quite possibly the widest and brightest grin she'd ever seen on his face, "That we could go and have a drink. Maze should be home tonight. I don’t think she’d mind watching Trixie for a couple hours."

"Even better," he agreed immediately, and the detective almost breathed a sigh of relief that he'd let her slip-up drop, until he leaned over to her. His voice dropped to a deep murmur, and she couldn't ignore that his eyes were very clearly staring at her lips. "Not that I'd turn you down if you did want to--"

"Stop talking," she interjected and started the car. There was no way she was going to let Lucifer finish that sentence, or let her mind finish that sentence, either. She wasn't going to think about doing _that_ with Lucifer. She certainly wasn't thinking about how close he was leaning, or how easy it would have been to turn her head and kiss him. No, no, no. Definitely not. Not after what had happened with Candy, and every day since. They were _just friends_.

Maybe asking him out for a drink had been a bad idea. It wasn’t just out of guilt for hurting him that she’d asked, although that had been the final thing to push her into asking. It was those lingering feelings she still had for him, the ones she tried so hard to ignore. She couldn’t ignore them now, if they did go out for a drink, but she also couldn’t retract her offer now that she’d seen how eager he was to take her up on it.

It was a terrible idea, but...

“I have a few things I need to finish up at the station, do you want to meet me somewhere later?” Chloe asked in her best nonchalant voice, as she pulled the car out onto the road.

“No,” Lucifer answered, and she felt her heart sink despite herself before he finished speaking, and then it skipped a beat instead. “I’ll pick you up at your home, detective. I know just the place to take you.”

 _Oh_ , Chloe thought,  _This was bad._

 

* * *

 

The Detective hadn’t said whether her offer of drinks was a date, or a quiet drink between colleagues, or a drink because she felt guilty about something. Maybe it was somehow all three, Lucifer wondered. He didn’t know why she’d feel guilty, but he’d seen the look on her face as she dragged him from Sanchez’s house. When she suggested that they do something that evening, Lucifer had decided to try his best to make her smile. It hadn’t really worked, all his teasing had done was make her blush, but it had been a start.

Then their not-date came around, he picked Chloe up from her house and drove them to a new cocktail bar not too far away from Lux. He’d even insisted on paying for whatever she wanted.

She’d looked so beautiful; all dressed up in a short black dress, her hair pulled back, and a nervous smile on her face. It could have looked like they were both dressed for a date. Him insisting that she order whatever drinks she liked might have looked that way too, but it couldn’t be a date. The detective would have said if it was, and why would she ask him on a date now that she had her free will back?

After telling her how lovely she looked, and enjoying the return of her blush, Lucifer led her to their reserved table. It was the best in the house, naturally, situated right beside a large window that looked out onto the street a floor below. They talked about work, mostly, and Lucifer let Chloe do most of the talking. He offered the odd suggestion on their latest homicide case, and the drug ring involved, but it was that that led the Devil to the conclusion that it couldn’t have been a date. Dates should have had much more passionate and intimate conversation, surely? They hadn’t mentioned sex once. It was unbelievable.

“Wait,” Lucifer held up his hand as Chloe explained her latest theory, and it was a worrying one. “You think our absentee drug dealer killed his partner?”

“Well, it wouldn’t be the first time,” the detective tried to explain, and took another sip of her drink, an _angel face_. Apparently she’d found the name amusing, and at least she hadn’t protested too much when Lucifer insisted she order whatever she desired. “They worked closely together, and Sanchez’s brother said they were… probably something more than colleagues, so,” she took another sip and looked around the bar. “Tensions can get high, jealousy’s always a factor, and maybe Sanchez’s wife was close to finding out about them.”

“So he hurt his partner?” He asked, and Chloe nodded and looked back at him. Lucifer had seen plenty of people in Hell who’d beaten or killed their partners, but this current case left him feeling as uneasy as the detective seemed to be feeling too.

“Some people just aren’t trustworthy,” she tried to explain, and he frowned. Was she implying that she didn't trust him? It was only a theory she had at the moment, they didn’t know for certain yet that Sanchez was the killer. “Eventually, they show you who they really are.”

“Right,” Lucifer nodded, but wasn’t sure whether he was agreeing, or hoping to drop the subject. He took another sip of his drink, finishing it, and called the waitress over to order another.

“It’s just a theory,” Chloe said suddenly, pushing her own empty glass away from herself.

“Of course. We’ll just have to wait for that warrant of yours to prove it,” he smiled uneasily. “Another drink?”

Gradually, another drink turned into another, and another, and he forgot that he was the only one with a supernatural metabolism. Just like he forgot how much humans liked to drink when they were nervous, to give them courage. He was soon reminded of that though, when Chloe started to sway forward in her seat. At least she’d stopped looking so nervous.

"It wouldn't work," she repeated, and just like the first 100 times she'd said that since he’d realised she was drunk, Lucifer tried to ignore the ache in his chest. "We're just-- just too different, you know?"

"Are you trying to convince yourself of that, or me?" He didn't mean to be short with her, he didn't want to be, but hearing the detective say those things made the pain of having to ignore his feelings even greater.

Chloe frowned at him, her face screwing up in either confusion or because she was drunk, Lucifer couldn't tell, and damn him for not being able to ignore how beautiful she looked. Maybe if he didn't say anything, her buzzed mind would get distracted and think of something else to talk about.

"What d'you mean?" _Or not_. The Devil sighed and downed the remainder of his final drink.

"Nothing, detective. Come on," he stood from their table and held his hands out to help her up, "Let me take you home."

"Oh, no," she protested loudly, even as she gripped his hands and stood up with him. "No. No, I know where this goes. Straight to--"

"Your home."

"--my bed."

"Well, your bed is at your home, detective." _Keep talking_ , he told himself as he wrapped his arm around Chloe's waist to steady her. Just keep talking, lead her to the corvette, and he wouldn't have to think about how good it felt to be able to hold her close.

"You don’t… don't fool me, Lucifer Morningstar," She slurred when he got her to his car and held the door open for her, and for a brief, worrying moment he thought she might collapse on him. He held her tighter, and she pressed her face into his chest.

"Detective," he said gently, trying to get her to look up at him, or to pull away so he could guide her into the passenger seat.

"Lucifer," she muttered back, her voice muffled against his shirt. This was terrible. He shouldn't have let her drink so much. He should have remembered that he didn't get drunk, and that humans only needed a small quantity for them to end up, well, like Chloe.

“If you could just--” He froze as the detective slowly wound her arms around his waist, underneath his jacket, and breathed a warm, contented sigh against his chest.

"Detective," Lucifer tried again, but this time she only hummed against his suit and said nothing else. "Let me help you."

Dad help _him_ , he didn't want to let her go. The best thing to do would have been to carefully untangle himself from her arms, nudge her into the car, and take her back to her apartment. He'd give her water to help lessen her hangover in the morning, and he'd tuck her in, and he'd leave her where he knew she'd be comfy and safe. So why was he putting his arms around her, standing in the car park of a bar, with absolutely no intention of moving from that spot?

She said something then, breaking his reverie, and even though her words were mumbled, they sounded an awful lot like, "You're warm."

"Thank you?" She chuckled at that, and the tugging in his chest told Lucifer he had to let go of her. He couldn't distance himself from the detective and his feelings and his dad's plans if he couldn't let her go. He knew accepting her offer was a bad move, but she’d been so flustered when she’d asked. She’d even been blushing. He couldn’t say no to a blushing detective.

"Come on," he repeated, and lightly pushed his hand against her shoulder to get her to step back. "Let's get you home. That little spawn of yours will be wondering where her mother is."

"She knows," Chloe answered, letting Lucifer guide her into the corvette. She even allowed him to lean over and fasten her seatbelt.

"Knows what?" He asked as he straightened up and joined her around the other side. Keeping her talking seemed to be a good idea. It would hopefully distract her from touching him and thinking about him taking her to her bed.

"About you." That wasn't good. His heart felt like it stopped at those words, and he looked at the detective, slumped in her seat but still somehow smiling happily at him.

"What do you mean?"

"She knows m'having drinks with you." _Oh, thank dad_ , for a horrible moment he thought the small human _knew_ about him. Not long ago he would have been happy to have them know and believe him, but things were different with Chloe now, and if Trixie convinced her mother of who he really was...

"Then she won't question me returning her mother to her," Lucifer put on his best smile as he started the corvette and drove them out of the parking lot. Chloe smiled back at him, her drunken mind clearly muddling her detective insists. At any other time he was certain she would have seen through such a tight smile.

 

* * *

 

As the corvette sped through the streets of LA, Lucifer couldn’t shake the feeling that he was being watched. Chloe had been oddly quiet for most of the ride, and he’d assumed she’d passed out until he looked across at her. With all the subtlety of a drunk detective, she quickly looked away, and focused on some blurry point outside of the car. She’d been quietly watching him, Lucifer supposed, but he couldn’t for the life of him work out why. Maybe she’d just been admiring his profile? He did have a rather impressive profile, and he couldn’t think why else she’d be staring at him.

He didn’t look at her again after that, not until he pulled up outside her apartment. By then, Chloe had fallen asleep with her head tilted towards him. She must have fallen asleep watching him, he mused as he slipped out of his car and started to lift his sleeping detective into his arms.

 _The_ detective, he mentally corrected. She wasn’t his. Nothing about carrying her, or her sleepily wrapping her arms around his neck, made her his. His friend, maybe, and definitely his partner, but not his in any other sense.

The apartment was quiet when he carried Chloe inside, after only just managing to open the front door without waking her. Lucifer assumed Maze and the spawn must have been in bed, but as he rounded the corner he heard the door of the little human’s room click shut. He turned, heard a faint shuffling from behind the door, and then saw her light turn off. She’d waited up for her mother, Lucifer could tell. The clever child must have been pleased to see him holding the detective, since she hadn’t tried to tackle him or rushed out to greet Chloe. Maybe he should carry her mother more often, if it meant avoiding those little hugs.

The detective stirred then, and Lucifer was reminded again of his mission.

“Goodnight, Beatrice,” he called through the door with a smirk, and carried Chloe to her room. His own thoughts started to betray him then. It was hard trying to ignore his imagination, playing out all of the far more appealing things his mind wanted to happen in the detective’s bedroom, but he made himself behave. Nothing like that could happen now, not now he knew she hadn’t had a choice, and he was simply there to look after her. Nothing more. He repeated that to himself as he carefully lowered her onto the bed.

“Detective,” Lucifer whispered softly. Chloe only hummed a reply, and he wasn’t sure if that was her answer, or if she was still barely awake. With only a moment’s hesitation, Lucifer moved to the foot of the bed and slowly removed the detective’s heels, then helped her to slip off her jacket. He wouldn’t remove anything else, no matter how tempting that may have been. He suspected she’d wake up soon anyway, and be more than happy to remove everything herself, probably after shouting about how hot it was. That thought made him smile as he leaned back over her and whispered again, “I’ll be back in a moment.”

“No,” her voice was quiet and mumbled into her pillow, but it was enough to stop him from leaving.

“No?” Lucifer repeated, his own voice hushed as he leaned back over her.

“Don’t leave again.” Somehow she managed to make her voice a little clearer, and rolled onto her back to look up at him. She seemed to be searching his face for something, or maybe she was just unable to focus because she was drunk, but she only relaxed when Lucifer sat down on the bed beside her.

“I won’t leave,” he promised, although he didn’t know why she thought he’d already left. _Again_? He’d been with her the whole evening. “I simply thought you might need some water.”

“I don’t need water,” Chloe smiled faintly, her eyes already starting to close again. He held his breath for a moment, wondering if he should just let her sleep or not, but his curiosity got the better of him.

“What _do_ you need?” Lucifer whispered, not really expecting an answer and not sure what to do when one came.

“Just you,” Chloe whispered back, and his breath caught in the back of his throat. How could she still want him? He’d given her her freedom back. She had free will now, surely that meant that she wouldn’t want him. Unless she just meant she wanted him to stay with her, in that moment, and he was overthinking things. He’d have to talk to Linda about this.

“Detective,” he began to reply before he noticed her steady breathing, her eyes closed. “Detective?” He tried again, but she didn’t stir. Once he was certain that she was asleep, he slipped his hand into hers and brushed a stray lock of blonde hair from her face.

“You already have me, Chloe.”

**Author's Note:**

> This wasn’t supposed to be this long, and it was meant to be more fluffy. I’m not sure what happened, but here it is; my first Deckerstar fic with a fluff/angst fusion.


End file.
